Digital Tradition Mirror

Phoebe Snow

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

Phoebe Snow
(Utah Phillips)

I saw her name on the side of a train
Somewhere a long time ago;
I don't know who she was, but I gave my love
To someone called Phoebe Snow
Like a bird on the wing I hear a voice sing
As over the prairies I roll
Well I'd give my life to spend one more night
In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow.

I climbed on board through a wide open door
Just as she started to roll
And I rode so light through the warm summer night
In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow.
Like a bird on the wing I hear a voice sing
As over the prairies I roll
Well I'd give my life to spend one more night
In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow.

(SPOKEN)
I've spent many a night around the fire
In a circle of stone silent men
I've heard the sagebrush whistle and pop
And the coffee boil up in the can.
And the bottoms were filled with the cool river wind;
The treetops chasin' the moon
And I knew without asking to take my guitar
And play up some slow, gentle tune.
Well, I played up a face I used to know,
And the song was the sound of the name
And I knew without looking that every man there
Was each of them feeling the same
Then I played up so hands, so pale and small,
With a touch just as light as the rain
And I knew without looking that every man there
Was each of them feeling the same
Then I played up the booze and the holes in the shoes
Of a man whose life is a cage
And all the things done to make a man run:
The hard luck, the failures of age.
Then I stopped with a crash and we looked into the ash,
Helpless with longing and rage.
Now a travelling life might seem allright;
A life without worry or care;
You're always up and you're always out;
You're always going somewhere
But I tell you, my friend, it's not where you are,
But your reason for being there.

Then I awoke as the day broke
And I gazed out over the plains
Thinking as how I'm better off now
From being in love with a train
Like a bird on the wing I hear a voice sing
As over the prairies I roll
Well I'd give my life to spend one more night
In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow.

Copyright Strike Music
DS

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!